Motorola’s quest to ban Apple’s push e-mail notifications from its iCloud and MobileMe services was upheld in a Germany court Friday. This is a victory for Motorola: Not only did the judge agree that an earlier injunction granted should be upheld, Apple was also ordered to pay Motorola unspecified damages in the case, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
Motorola sued Apple over the way iCloud and its predecessor MobileMe send “push” emails, claiming the method used is a violation of “multiple pager status synchronization system and method patents” — basically technology Motorola once used in pagers. A judge agreed and forced Apple to come up with a workaround in early February. Apple did that: The overall services of MobileMe and iCloud still work in Germany, but users have to check their email manually, rather than it being automatically pushed to them.
Apple said following the initial ruling that Motorola’s “old pager patent is invalid.” It’s not clear if Apple plans to appeal Friday’s ruling or the damages — the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While it’s a win for Motorola, it’s just one battle in the all-out mobile patent war that has engulfed most of the world’s major mobile device and software makers. For a visualization of who’s suing whom, don’t miss this helpful graphic illustrating the global patent suit mess.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
- What the Google-Motorola deal means for Android, Microsoft and the mobile industry
- CES 2012: a recap and analysis
- U.S. Wireless Data Market: Q4 and Year-End 2008
